Thursday, May 19, 2005

TWU and Greek NT Manuscripts

. . . . After 50 years of collating biblical manuscripts, New Testament scholar Reuben Swanson, Ph.D., professor emeritus at Western Carolina University, is passing on his massive collection of primary research to TWU’s Kent Clarke, Ph.D., professor of religious studies. Clarke, who recently began working with Swanson on editing the collection, inherited over 100 different ancient manuscripts on microfilm, containing all of the books of the New Testament and some Old Testament books.

According to Clarke, not only is this microfilm as close to the exemplar manuscripts as possible, this collection is by far the biggest of its nature in Canada. It’s Clarke’s goal to make the primary biblical texts available for students and the community alike.

“It’s pretty hard for any of us to fly to the Vatican library to evaluate ancient manuscripts—though some of us do that—so textual critics have pretty much relied on microfilm,” explains Clarke. “Throughout Swanson’s 50 years of research, he spent significant time and money slowly gathering this collection. There is nothing comparable to this in Canada—and now it’s right here in Langley.” . . . .

Rick Brannan comments in Ricoblog. I particularly like his characterization of a "Jim Davila inspired moment". I think that's right -- one of the things that Jim has set the standard on -- holding the news media to account.